Carseland fire hall contract awarded

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

The architectural contract for the Carseland Fire Hall was awarded to Sahuri and Partners Architecture Inc. and will cost Wheatland County $127,500.
For that price, the county will receive designs, drawings and construction documents for the new hall.
Twelve proposals were submitted and Sahuri was chosen from all the tenders. In their proposal, they listed the extensive experience they have in designing other fire halls and EMS buildings in the province, and included reference letters from many of those services.
“We went through a fairly lengthy process for the design build process, but it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to work out. So, we decided to stop the process and restart it using a different methodology,” said Angie Lucas, general manager of agriculture, community and protective services with Wheatland County.
The process to determine and develop the request for proposals (RFP) began last fall, and considerations were made to include the various needs of a working fire hall and coordination with administration, while developing a flexible type of construction.
“Give us one design that works for everything. We build them all the same and then we can save some costs on architects,” said Wheatland County Councillor Ben Armstrong.
Councillor Tom Ikert indicated he would like to see the architectural designs kept simple, without unnecessary embellishment. Lucas said they hope to use the designs, with a little modification for site specifics, for new builds on fire halls throughout the county in the future.
“We are looking to make this a standardized plan. The site changes a little bit, but this was our approach through the RFP. We know we have another two fire halls to do in the future. So, reducing the up-front costing and making sure we get the correct construction costs will be more fiscally efficient for the county in the future,” said Lucas.

Calgary Metropolitan Region Board holds initial meeting
Calgary area municipal representatives met for the first time on March 22 to discuss meetings and timelines for the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) planning decisions.
The CMRB chair indicated that no municipality under the plan should approve statutory plans yet, without regional evaluation frameworks (REF) in place, as those decisions would not be authorized without CMRB approvals. He hoped the CMRB can be working on the regional evaluation framework and full plan soon.
Municipalities were tasked to appoint their representatives as soon as possible. Wheatland County added as alternates to Reeve Glenn Koester, Councillor Tom Ikert and Deputy Reeve Scott Klassen. Ikert will be sitting on the CMRB land use committee and Klassen will sit on the inter-municipal servicing committee.
“Again it’s that whole voting structure, in that if you are not there you are considered in favour,” said Klassen, about the importance of having a representative present at CMRB meetings.

GFL gets independent review
Green for Life compost facility will get a visit from Dr. Daryl McCartney to review management systems, historical records, hold interviews with staff and conduct a site visit that will include a meeting with the public.
McCartney is an environmental engineer professor with the University of Alberta with over 30 years experience in organic waste utilization and composting systems.
The cost for review will be $5,000.

Back to the future for MPC
Wheatland County Deputy Reeve Scott Klassen announced April 3 that council members would be back sitting on the Wheatland County Municipal Planning Commission. Previously, council indicated a municipal planning commission was needed to deal with development issues, with the rationale that appointed members would free council up for other priorities.
“Due to recent changes to the MGA (Municipal Government Act) and our mandatory participation in the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board, as well as council training and understanding of development processes, all of council will sit on the municipal planning commission,” said Klassen.
It was felt it was valuable training for the new council, which will also be helpful when reviewing the municipal development plans and land use bylaws. This decision may later be reviewed and changed. Training for the commission is scheduled for April 11.